Bombay High Court admits Adnan Sami's appeal

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday admitted the appeal filed by Pakistani singer Adnan Sami challenging the family court order, which directed him to pay Rs6.4crore to his ex-wife Sabah Galadari – towards repayment, compensation and meher (money given by husband to woman aftermarriage)–and also to surrender his duplex flat in Andheri.

A division bench ofjustices VK Tahilramani and Ajey Gadkari also stayed the familycourt's order for 10 weeks, while asking Galadari to file her reply. Rajani Iyer and Ranbir Singh, Sami's counsels, had sought quashing of the family courtorder of April 5, saying that the same was "erroneous, illegal, ultra vires, contrary to settled principles of law andunsustainable".

According to the singer's appeal, the family court did not appreciate the legal effect of the order of the enforcement directorate holding that Sami had no legal title and hence no legal authority to gift the suit property. Challenging the family court order that asked him to return Rs 5.3 crore, which he had borrowed from Galadari, Sami has said that she had failed to prove that she had lent him the amount in the first place.

In addition, the family court had asked Sami to pay Rs1 crore as compensation for alleged harassment under the Domestic Violence Act.

Challenging this,Sami has said that the amount was decided without disclosing any cogent reasons for arriving at such a figure."The mere fact thatthe respondent (Galadari) is used to an extremely high standard of living and is of high status does not by itself justify imposition ofsuch heavy compensation," added his appeal.